Good or Bad News?

[Lee B]

"In a recent survey by financial app developer Capterra, 60% of respondents now seek advice from personal finance apps before reaching out to financial professionals. Furthermore, 64% of fintech users feel that these tools have significantly reduced their reliance on financial advisors."

"The most popular solutions for fintech users include banking (82%), payments (63%), and personal finance management tools (57%). Overall, 73% of fintech users actively use between two to five tools, which include everything from do-it-yourself investing apps to AI-powered planning tools."

"Despite the high adoption of these apps, some fintech users still prefer an accountant to handle tax planning and preparation (47%), estate planning (42%), auditing and assurance services (34%), and business consulting (28%)."

Almost all of my clients are older than 50, but that in itself is concerning because when my clients use these apps

they don't really understand the relevance of the information or the risks and issues associated with these apps.

[mcbreck]

One of the major problems with doing it yourself is cognitive decline as you age and risk assessment (you are correct).

I got into investments in the early 90's (got my Series 6 in 1991 while in college) and it was common to see people who had 100% of their portfolio in bonds and CDs.

Now it is common to find seniors with 100% of their portfolio in equities and they've never owned a bond or CD.

The son in law of a client has 100% of his portfolio in gold. My brother in law has a friend who's entire retirement portfolio is in guns. He has hundreds of guns in his home and he'll sell a few every month in retirement. He told my BIL that guns NEVER go down in value so I asked what if the house burns down.....

[BrewOne]

I know a full-service broker is expensive, but I have seen enough issues at tax time where they would have made a huge difference.

For example, fairly intelligent client with a discount broker that had allowed him for years to put 100% of the max contribution into a Roth IRA and a 100% of the max contribution into a Traditional IRA (yes, double the allowed amount).  His explanation when I finally heard about the excess contribution, "I didn't think you needed to know about Roth contributions because there's no tax benefit.  What a mess to straighten out.

[Randall]

23 hours ago, BrewOne said:

I know a full-service broker is expensive, but I have seen enough issues at tax time where they would have made a huge difference.

For example, fairly intelligent client with a discount broker that had allowed him for years to put 100% of the max contribution into a Roth IRA and a 100% of the max contribution into a Traditional IRA (yes, double the allowed amount).  His explanation when I finally heard about the excess contribution, "I didn't think you needed to know about Roth contributions because there's no tax benefit.  What a mess to straighten out.

Ouch!!